Missing WaPo Journalist May Have Been the Target of a 15 man Hit Squad

-Early in the day Saturday Turkey’s Anadolu news agency announced the Istanbul public prosecutor’s office was formally probing the disappearance, and though yet to reveal any specific evidence to back the murder charge, concluded that a 15-member team “came from Saudi Arabia. It was a preplanned murder,” according to sources privy to the investigation cited in TheWashington Post.

-Saudi leadership likely considered his criticisms, which have increased over the past year related to such issues as the arrests of women activists, as especially dangerous due to his speaking from within the Saudi establishment and having been an adviser to a former Saudi intelligence chief.

-Meanwhile, on the heels of the bombshell initial reports on Saturday alleging that Khashoggi was murdered, Middle East Eye issued its own report based on sources close to the Turkish probe into the disappearance. The report claims the Saudi journalist was “brutally tortured, killed and cut into pieces” and his body removed from the consulate.

-The Middle East Eye sources further say there is video tape evidence of the whole murder – a tape subsequently taken out of Turkey via return flight to Saudi Arabia.